RT @WSJ: “I haven’t beaten cancer; it’s a daily part of my life from now on.” @WSJ reporter shares his cancer story: http://t.co/HJIkhRM6sV

]]>http://blogs.reuters.com/deborah-charles/2013/12/11/rt-wsj-i-havent-beaten-cancer-its-a-daily-part-of-my-life-from-now-on-wsj-reporter-shares-his-cancer-story-httpt-cohjikhrm6sv/feed/0White House official writes about his cancer and importance of having insurance http://t.co/CQCsVT9Gk3http://twitter.com/dcharlesReuters/status/408618199446351872
http://blogs.reuters.com/deborah-charles/2013/12/05/white-house-official-writes-about-his-cancer-and-importance-of-having-insurance-httpt-cocqcsvt9gk3/#commentsThu, 05 Dec 2013 15:25:45 +0000http://blogs.reuters.com/deborah-charles/?p=1261By Deborah Charles

White House official writes about his cancer and importance of having insurance http://t.co/CQCsVT9Gk3

WASHINGTON, Nov 6 (Reuters) – The disclosure early this year
of a secretive Chinese military unit believed to be behind a
series of hacking attacks has failed to halt the cyber
intrusions, a U.S. computer security company and congressional
advisory panel said on Wednesday.

A report by the cybersecurity company Mandiant in February
identified the People’s Liberation Army’s Shanghai-based Unit
61398 as the most likely culprit in hacking attacks on a wide
range of industries. China’s Defense Ministry denied the
accusations.

The U.S.-China Economic and Security Commission, a panel
which advises the U.S. Congress on China policy, said Mandiant’s
revelations brought only a brief pause in cyber intrusions by
that PLA unit.

“There are no indications the public exposure of Chinese
cyber espionage in technical detail throughout 2013 has led
China to change its attitude toward the use of cyber espionage
to steal proprietary economic and trade information,” the
commission said in a draft of their annual report to Congress.

The draft report, made available to Reuters on Wednesday,
said Mandiant’s revelations “merely led Unit 61398 to make
changes to its cyber ‘tools and infrastructure’ (to make) future
intrusions harder to detect and attribute.”

The commission’s report, to be released in final form later
this month, quoted Mandiant experts as saying the Chinese
military hackers decreased their activities for about a month
following the February publication of that report.

DIFFERENT TOOLS

A Mandiant spokeswoman told Reuters that within a few weeks
of the February report, the hacking levels from China had
returned to about the same levels though the group was using
some different tools.

“From what we can tell, they are still stealing the same
type of data from the same industries,” Mandiant spokeswoman
Susan Helmick said on Wednesday.

“The focus appears to be the same but the methods and
malware, they had to shift,” Helmick said.

A spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington on
Wednesday repeated China’s response to the initial Mandiant
report.

“Cyber attacks are transnational and anonymous,” said
spokesman Geng Shuang. “We don’t know how the evidence is
collected in this report.”

Geng added: “China stands against cyber attacks and has done
what it can to combat such activities in accordance with Chinese
laws and regulations.”

The February Mandiant report said PLA Unit 61398 is located
in Shanghai’s Pudong district, China’s financial and banking
hub, and is staffed by perhaps thousands of people proficient in
English as well as computer programming and network operations.

It said the unit had stolen hundreds of terabytes of data
from at least 141 organizations across a diverse set of
industries – mostly in the United States, with smaller numbers
in Canada and Britain.

The information stolen ranged from details on mergers and
acquisitions to the emails of senior employees, the company
said.

A report in July issued by the Commission on the Theft of
American Intellectual Property said theft of business and
industrial secrets cost the U.S. economy some $300 billion a
year and that China was responsible for most of it.

In June, President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart,
Xi Jinping, agreed to launch a bilateral working group to
discuss cybersecurity issues. The group has met twice since
July.

The U.S.-China Economic and Security Commission said it was
told by experts that former U.S. National Security Agency
contractor Edward Snowden’s revelations of NSA cyber-operations
against targets in China and Hong Kong would set back efforts to
address Chinese cyber attacks by six months to a year.

In a hearing of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, senators peppered administration officials to explain how “secret-level” clearances could be given without having to check police records even if the applicant for clearance had an arrest history.

They asked Elaine Kaplan, acting director of the Office of Personnel Management for an explanation regarding Alexis, who went on a shooting rampage and killed 12 people plus himself at Washington’s Navy Yard last month.

Alexis was a contract employee for the Defense Department and received a “secret” clearance in 2008 despite violent incidents in the past, including a 2004 arrest in Seattle for shooting out a car’s tires.

A “secret” clearance is a mid-level security classification that allows the holder access to information considered secret and that could be damaging to national security if released. It falls below the “top-secret” clearance, which requires more frequent background examinations.

Kaplan said when the background check of Alexis was done in 2007, investigators discovered that Alexis had been arrested. But they did not check directly with Seattle police to obtain the arrest warrant, looking only into a Washington state database of court records to discover that the charges for “malicious mischief” had been dropped.

As a result, investigators did not learn that Alexis had shot out a car’s tires in anger.

“I find it actually incredibly shocking that we wouldn’t pursue a police report in any of these arrest situations, because the nature of the charge, looking at the underlying police report, having been a prosecutor, can tell us very different information,” said Republican Senator Kelly Ayotte.

Kaplan said the OPM had followed all required protocols and had met investigative standards.

“Now, what we’re looking at right now in the context of the review .. is, well, are the standards up to snuff? Should we be required to get police reports, for example?” Kaplan asked. “Should we be required to get mental health information even from someone who has a secret as opposed to a top-secret clearance? All these things need to be looked at.”

Committee Chairman Tom Carper said while the committee had long urged the administration to cut its backlog of security clearance applications, investigators must not sacrifice quality for speed.

“Many national security experts have long argued the security clearance process is antiquated and in need of modernization,” Carper said. “And given recent events, I think we have to ask whether the system is fundamentally flawed.”

WASHINGTON, Oct 29 (Reuters) – The U.S. National Security
Agency director on Tuesday defended the spy agency as acting
within legal boundaries, amid a public uproar which has grown
from anger over the collection of Americans’ phone and email
records to outrage over spying on European allies.

General Keith Alexander offered an impassioned defense of
the beleaguered intelligence agency, telling the House of
Representatives Intelligence Committee that the NSA is focused
on preventing attacks on Americans and allies, and operates
under strict oversight.

“It is much more important for this country that we defend
this nation and take the beatings than it is to give up a
program that would result in this nation being attacked,”
Alexander said, referring to criticism of his agency.

Under sympathetic questioning from the committee chairman,
Representative Mike Rogers, Alexander called media reports in
France, Spain and Italy that the NSA collected data on tens of
millions of phone calls in those countries “completely false.”

Some of the data referenced in documents leaked by former
NSA contractor Edward Snowden was collected not just by the NSA
itself but was also “provided to NSA by foreign partners,” he
said. “This is not information that we collected on European
citizens. It represents information that we and our NATO allies
have collected in defense of our countries and in support of
military operations.”

Rogers warned that collecting foreign intelligence was
important to protecting Americans and allies from terrorism.

“Every nation collects foreign intelligence. That is not
unique to the United States,” Rogers said in prepared opening
remarks at the committee hearing. “What is unique to the United
States is our level of oversight, our commitment to privacy
protections, and our checks and balances on intelligence
collection.”

At the hearing, witnesses included Alexander, NSA Deputy
Director Chris Inglis, Director of National Intelligence James
Clapper and Deputy Attorney General James Cole.

Protesters in the hearing room held signs that said “stop
spying on us” and yelled “lies, lies and more lies.”

The intelligence chiefs are appearing against a backdrop of
angry European allies accusing the United States of spying on
their leaders and citizens.

The most prominent target appears to have been German
Chancellor Angela Merkel. A German media report last week said
the United States monitored her mobile phone. The White House
did not deny the report, but has said no such surveillance is
taking place now.

More than any previous disclosures from material given to
journalists by Snowden, the reports of spying on close U.S.
allies have forced the White House to promise reforms and even
acknowledge that America’s electronic surveillance may have gone
too far.

LEADERSHIP INTENTIONS

Clapper told the hearing that one of the most fundamental
missions of U.S. intelligence agencies is to understand foreign
leaders’ intentions. He spoke broadly and historically, and did
not refer to any specific leaders.

“Leadership intentions are an important dimension of the
landscape out there for all policymakers,” he said.

The hearing took place amid growing debate over whether new
limitations should be placed on NSA activities, and as multiple
reviews of agency programs are under way or being launched by
the White House and Congress.

The top Republican in Congress, House Speaker John Boehner,
told reporters there should be a review of NSA spying on allied
leaders. He said the United States must balance its obligations
to allies with its responsibility to keep Americans safe.

Two lawmakers from different political parties introduced
legislation to end the government’s “dragnet collection” of
information. The bill also calls for greater oversight,
transparency and accountability for domestic surveillance.

Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy and Republican
Representative James Sensenbrenner, the primary authors of the
USA Patriot Act implemented after Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, to
improve the government’s ability to protect its citizens, now
want to make sure information gathering does not go too far.

“No one underestimates the threat this country continues to
face, and we can all agree that the intelligence community
should be given necessary and appropriate tools to help keep us
safe,” said Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“But we should also agree that there must be reasonable limits
on the surveillance powers we give to the government.”

U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, chairwoman of the Senate
Intelligence Committee , joined the ranks of critics on Monday,
expressing outrage at American intelligence collection on
allies, and pique that her committee was not informed.

“With respect to NSA collection of intelligence on leaders
of U.S. allies – including France, Spain, Mexico and Germany
-let me state unequivocally: I am totally opposed,” said
Feinstein, who has been a staunch defender of some of the NSA
programs leaked by Snowden.

The White House is conducting a review of intelligence
programs prompted by disclosures about top-secret spying
programs to the media by Snowden, who is living in Russia, out
of reach of U.S. attempts to arrest him.

The Senate Intelligence Committee conducted a hearing in
September at which Feinstein said proposals included putting
limits on the NSA’s phone data program, prohibiting collection
of the content of phone calls, and legally requiring that
intelligence analysts have a “reasonable articulable suspicion”
that a phone number was associated with terrorism in order to
query the database.

Rogers said some of the proposals being considered in
Congress “would effectively gut the operational usefulness of
programs that are necessary to protect America’s national
security.”

And he warned, “We cannot go back to a pre-9/11 mindset and
risk failing to ‘connect the dots’ again.”